Ayumi could swear she saw a shadow in her room watching her; maybe it was just the stress of moving house so unexpectedly, not even the flyers and assignments for her new school sparked any excitement in her.

The girl missed her mother. She had promised to call whenever she could or to visit her, even if it meant traveling halfway around the world. She wasn’t sure she could count on it, but she would try to believe her.

Ayumi tried to focus on organizing the room as she stuck some anime posters on the wall of her new bedroom. The girl’s boxes of belongings were now being emptied gradually. She was a fan of some of those shōjo anime, the epitome of sugary‑sweet clichés shows that cheered her up, and only a few of those silly magical‑girl anime, which weren’t the brunette‑blonde’s favourites, but that she held a certain fondness for.

On the corner of Ayumi's newly assembled desk, a flyer grabbed her attention.

“Saint Lucy Academy.” Ayumi laughed, remembering the name of her new school.

She knew it was some traditional school in London with nuns or something like that, where only spoiled rich kids went. Her father, a new money type, due to job transfers and some lucky contract that changed the girl's family's life.

She would go to boarding school if she passes the test, the results would come out before classes started. Ayumi passed her exams, she would hate having to live far from her father, but  at least she hoped the people at school would be nice to her. Maybe she was getting her hopes up too high? But she was willing to see what would happen.

 ''If it's God's will, I'll pass this test." She said to herself. "And that... would make my dad happy, that's good!"

The bags were packed a little carelessly on the girl's part, but the J-pop songs playing on Ayumi's old MP3 player overshadowed the girl's lack of interest in the first day of school. Deep down, she felt this was going to be an interesting year.

She was wrong. Even though the "kids," as Ayumi liked to call the other teenagers, were the children of extremely famous and/or wealthy people, the girl could feel nothing but disappointment. "This isn't why I learned English." She had done everything correctly: transfers, documentation.

She didn't know what she would do if she started to feel out of place. She had never had any problems making new friends before; as a result of her father's work, it was easy to make and break connections. 

''Sure...I will go out making some friends or... similar''

During break time, the girl with the red bow sat alone on one of the benches in the long hallway. She sipped her juice from the carton slowly. She read the label countless times, trying to entertain herself with something.

Meanwhile, the boy who had just sat down next to the girl looked tired, even irritated, with a few scratches on his body and his black hair disheveled. "He looks like he just got out of a fight... Ah!" Ayumi thought, as she remembered a fight from a few minutes ago.

"Aho...'' The girl muttered, seeming to enjoy seeing the boy like that. "You... took a good beating".

The boy turned to face the girl in the red ribbon, his fingerless glove holding an ice pack over his right eye. Rising his left eye brow seeming curious about dealing with the strange girl.